Argentina: Milei Government Attacks Inclusive Language

“By decision of the president, steps will begin to prohibit inclusive language and gender perspective throughout the national public administration,” declared presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni on February 27, 2024.

“It will not be possible to use the letter e, @, x (used in Spanish to avoid gender indications -  ed.) and the unnecessary use of the feminine will be avoided in all documents” of the public administration, he continued. “The language covering all sectors is Castilian Spanish,” he insisted.

He announced that the government will veto, in public administration communications, all expressions that go against the rules of the Royal Spanish Academy. “Gender perspectives have been used as a political matter.”

The presidential spokesman spoke the day after the Ministry of Defense announced a ban, under penalty of sanction, of the use of inclusive language “within the framework of the Ministry of Defense, the armed forces, and decentralized bodies of the ministry.”

“The objective is to eliminate incorrect forms of language, which can generate an erroneous interpretation of what is desired, affecting the execution of orders and the progress of military operations,” justified the ministry.

The use of inclusive language in the administration was discretionary under the previous Peronist (center-left) government, but many entities and institutions published “recommendations” or “use guides.”

Previously, there were no precise guidelines, but a 2020 ministerial document committed to “accompanying cultural changes in gender relations... forged over the years of [military] engagement of women.”

The same document called for “discerning good practices” and contexts, and not “imposing” a title, noting that “young female officers, in their desire for integration, in general do not agree with the feminization of ranks and offices.”

It should be noted that former President Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) defended the use of inclusive language and its use was incorporated in public communications of the Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity, now eliminated by the current executive. 

Javier Milei, a self-described “libertarian” and “anarcho-capitalist,” has never made a secret of his opposition to inclusive language, as well as “gender ideology,” which in the past he has accused of “undermining the values of society.”

The new president of Argentina says he recognizes the freedom to use this language, but he believes that when it is disseminated or imposed in a state context, it borders on “indoctrination,” a component he sees as a form of  “cultural Marxism.”